Wildlife trade issue headline at Conservation Asia 2016

While talks on illegal wildlife trade played little role at the Society for Conservation Biology Asia Section 2014 Meeting in Melaka, Malaysia, trade issues headlined Conservation Asia 2016.

I was pleased to moderate a plenary panel on wildlife trade (video to be released) and facilitate 3 symposia on wildlife trade, discussing the role of captive breeding for trade, trade enforcement, and emerging issues. The talk abstracts are listed below.

In addition, the organising Societies decided to release a Resolution on Illegal Wildlife Trade and Trafficking, highlighting findings from these sessions.

Conservation Asia Abstract book

State of literature on wildlife farming

Ho, Benjamin; Webb, Edward L.; Phelps, Jacob

Captive breeding of non-domesticated species for trade, also known as wildlife farming or ranching, remains controversial as a tool for supply-side conservation. However, the conservation impacts of farming & ranching cases remain under-researched, and related debates are often informed by a small number of taxa and/or by intuition about how these interventions are expected to influence conservation. We conducted a comprehensive literature review of wildlife farming case studies, covering terrestrial animal taxa globally and including sources from grey literature, to evaluate the existing evidence for understanding how wildlife farming & ranching affects conservation. The review highlights the geographical and taxonomic distribution of wildlife farming & ranching and identifies the themes most often discussed in the related literature. Themes are assessed as conditions (e.g. economic and biological feasibility, governance, market conditions, etc.) or outcomes (e.g. consumption attitudes, socioeconomic benefits, effects on habitat, wild populations, and other species, etc.). Hence, this review will discover if prevailing sentiments (opinions, perceptions) about wildlife farming & ranching align with the literature.

A criminological perspective on the wildlife trade: (what) can we learn from the drug market experience?

Potter, Gary; Phelps, Jacob

The international trade in wildlife has grown rapidly, and is increasingly considered as one of the major contemporary challenges to international, as well as national, crime control. Sourced, predominantly, in remote areas of less-developed nations, driven by consumer demand, and trafficked around the world by organised criminal networks, the illegal wildlife trade shares, at least at first glance, many characteristics with the global trade in illegal drugs. Global drug markets have been subject to international policing efforts – and to academic study – for decades, and this experience may be something that we can usefully draw on in the fight against wildlife trafficking. This paper seeks to explore commonalities between these two illegal markets – the forces driving demand, the characteristics (motivation, mechanics, market structure) of distribution and distributors, the features that characterise source areas (where drugs are grown or produced, where animals and plants are hunted or harvested). Crucially, key differences between the two are also discussed. The paper seeks to understand what lessons can be learnt from decades of international experience trying to restrict drug markets and how these might apply to efforts directed against the wildlife trade – and whether such comparisons between the two markets are useful.

Changing dynamics of eel trade and 'farming'.

Shiraishi, Hiromi

There are 16 species of freshwater eel in the genus Anguilla distributed throughout temperate and tropical waters. Many are harvested and traded on a global scale for consumption with current demand predominantly driven by East Asian markets. Eel farming, which is reliant on wild-caught juvenile eels or “glass eels”, has been used to meet global demand long before concerns over resource depletion and the impact of international trade on threatened temperate species such as European eel A. anguilla and Japanese eel A. japonica. Anguilla eel production and trade are constantly evolving due to various factors including species/glass eel availability affected by annual variations/declines in recruitment and trade controls, national investment and farming techniques and changes in consumer behaviour. After the EU banned all imports and exports of A. anguilla to and from the EU in December 2010, the Americas and South-East Asia, in particular the Philippines and Indonesia, became important sources of juvenile eels for farming. The Philippine and Indonesia have both imposed export bans for juvenile eels while promoting growing out eels prior to export. However, illegal trade continues to be a problem and the ongoing demand of wild-caught juveniles for eel farming is a serious conservation concern for this group of species.

Captive breeding of Siamese crocodiles for reintroduction and the roles that crocodile farms can play in conservation

Frechette, Jackson; Han, Sam

The capture of wild Siamese crocodiles, Crocodylus siamensis, for their skins and to stock crocodile farms pushed the species nearly to extinction. The largest remaining population of wild Siamese crocodiles is in the Cardamom Mountains in southwest Cambodia, where the Cambodian Crocodile Conservation Programme (CCCP) has been working to conserve this critically endangered species since 2000. With the pressures of hunting now significantly reduced, the CCCP is working to restore the wild population by releasing captive bred individuals into protected sites. Here, we present an overview of the CCCP’s captive breeding and reintroduction program. We will highlight the issues and opportunities in the engagement with crocodile farms in a conservation context.

Conservation through wildlife farming in Papua New Guinea

Moyle, Brendan

Wildlife farming in Papua New Guinea has a history going back to the 1970s. This has led to significant conservation success in the case of crocodilians. For a time, the trade in butterflies also generated positive conservation and development outcomes. These outcomes appear surprising given Papua New Guinea is a developing country with poor infrastructure, and is burdened by high levels of corruption and weak enforcement. Market mechanisms arose to achieve sustainability. In the case of crocodilians, there is a dominant buyer of eggs who employed their market power to enforce sustainability in Sepik villages. This is reinforced by international buyers of crocodile skins, who exhibit a strong preference for farmed leather. In the case of butterflies, farmers appear to have setup their farms far enough apart to prevent interactions, and thus avoid the tragedy of the commons. Analysis of wildlife farming for conservation should extend beyond the regulatory environment to the economic parameters.

Is farming saving the Chinese giant salamander from extinction?

Shu, Chen Becky; Cunningham, Andrew A.

The world’s largest amphibian, the Critically Endangered Chinese giant salamander (CGS; Andrias davidianus - Cryptobranchidae) is eaten as a delicacy in China. Occupying a range that encompasses mountain tributaries of the Pearl, Yellow and Yangtze rivers across 17 provinces in China, this species has declined catastrophically over the past 30 years, largely due to overexploitation for food and habitat destruction. The recent development of a rapidly growing CGS farming industry might have exacerbated the regional extinction of wild populations, but little is known about the extent of CGS farming, its potential (positive or negative) impacts on CGS conservation or the possible impact of CGS protection on local livelihoods. From 2012-2015, we conducted a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary investigation to understand the industry better and to identify any conservation threats or opportunities it presents. The findings will be discussed in this presentation, including the latest knowledge on the current status of the wild CGS populations, threats from the farming industry to this species’ continued existence, and the identified measures that need to be taken to improve the current management of farms to ensure the sustainability of this industry and thus to mitigate threats to the remaining animals in the wild.

Why animal welfare should also be considered in conservation and wildlife farming programs: The example of bear bile farming.

Donithan, Kelly

Wildlife farming has been proposed and attempted as a market-based approach in conservation to alleviate pressure on wild populations targeted by wildlife trade. Bear bile, one valuable product used in traditional medicine, has been sourced from captive live bears after an extraction technique was developed in the 1980’s. The validity of the conservation argument of this practice, known as bear bile farming, is questionable at best, and doubts exist as to whether the bile products manufactured actually satisfy demand or, instead, stimulate further demand for wild supply. Still, a question often remains overlooked in the context of wildlife conservation: Do the welfare implications of the practice justify any potential or even real conservation value? Recently, more attention has been given to animal welfare within conservation, including a push to recognize and consider the possible negative impacts on individual health and wellbeing. Bear bile farming has largely disregarded welfare concerns and has caused severe animal suffering. As evidenced through observations of bears on farms and through health examinations and behavioural observations of bears rescued (both from farms and from trade destined for farms) and currently residing at two sanctuaries in China and Vietnam, it is clear that thousands of bears are subjected to unnatural confinement, inadequate husbandry, and extraction techniques that result in a variety of health complications. To this end, bear bile farming should serve as a prime example of why welfare of both captive and wild individuals should weigh into the equation when determining conservation programs.

Formulating conservation enforcement responses to illegal wildlife trade. Phelps, Jacob; Biggs, Duan; Webb, Edward

Commercial illegal wildlife trade (IWT) affects thousands of species worldwide and is a targeted, intense threat to many taxa. Conservation responses are often heavily polarised between monitoring/enforcement-based solutions, and those based around concepts of sustainable use and captive breeding for legal trade. In both cases, however, IWT is often treated as monolithic in academic and policy debates, dominated by a few high-profile cases and based on numerous assumptions. In fact, IWT is a heterogeneous phenomenon that involves a diversity of taxa, actors, network configurations, contexts and situations. We synthesize the available evidence into a typology of IWT actors, and describe trade network configurations that characterize common IWT market chains. We propose how more structured analysis, rooted in these typologies, can help inform the more targeted, effective and fair responses to IWT, that help us to evaluate of both enforcement and legal trade-based solutions.

The nature of online wildlife trade in Indonesia: An overview of protected and endangered wildlife on sale at Facebook

Setyorini, Yunita D.

Protected and endangered wildlife have a high value on the illegal wildlife market, and is a serious threat to species conservation in Indonesia. In particular, online illegal wildlife trade is rising at an alarming rate; increasing Internet use, followed by emerging social networks like Facebook in Indonesia, are creating new trade platforms and markets. Facebook connects millions of people across Indonesia, and has become a significant online wildlife market network. We evaluated the extent of trade in protected and endangered wildlife trade on Facebook. We followed accounts which had advertised protected wildlife using snowball sampling, targeting the trade of birds and mammals; investigated their closed and secret groups, and then recorded protected and endangered wildlife adverts. We monitored 56 exotic wildlife groups trading birds and mammals on Facebook in 2015. Result shows 95% of the bird and mammal species found advertised is protected by Indonesian Law, and 41% are on the top-three IUCN conversation status (e.g., Sumatran Orangutan, Gibbons, Javan Lutung). This protected wildlife trade on Facebook violates the Indonesian Conservation Act, and indicates the need for expanded monitoring of online trade, more active enforcement targeting online traders and buyers, and a proactive conservation response from online trading platforms such as Facebook.

Recent pangolin seizures in China identify key areas for law enforcement

Cheng, Wenda1; Xing, Shuang; Bonebrake, Timothy

All pangolin species in the world are now listed as threatened by IUCN due to escalating demand for their scales and meat for Traditional Chinese Medicine. Though China has enforced pangolin trade restrictions through seizures, the country continues to be the largest market and destination for pangolin products. In this study we summarized pangolin seizure data from public media reports from 2008 to 2016, incorporating often neglected small seizure incidents reported in Chinese. Using social network analysis we found that during our study period 79,983 individuals of pangolins have been recorded over 209 seizures in China. We also found that both the number of pangolin seizures and total seizure quantity yearly is generally increasing. Eight cities from Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Hong Kong were highlighted as the locations where most pangolins were seized, indicating hotspots for trade and future trade enforcement priorities. Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam were the most abundant sources in Southeast Asia while Kenya, Cameroon and Nigeria were the most abundant sources in Africa. For these source hotspots we suggest increased vigilance on cargo and stricter domestic control within those source countries should be a priority. Our results highlight the scale and scope of pangolin trade in China and provide guidance for future law enforcement and policy which could assist in managing wildlife trafficking globally.

Collaborative efforts on addressing the Southeast Asian Songbird Crisis

Lee, Jessica; Chng, Serene; Tritto Anaїs

Songbird-keeping is firmly entrenched in Southeast Asian culture and tradition. As such, the region has one of the highest demands and volumes of domestic and international bird trade - involving hundreds of species and thousands of birds. Capture for the songbird trade is recognised as the largest threat for many species in Southeast Asia, with a number of them perilously close to extinction as a result of this demand. Currently, there is a lack of regulation, monitoring and enforcement efforts of bird markets and trade networks by the relevant authorities. This is compounded by a lack of species information and their population status in the wild. The plight of the species and their conservation needs to be highlighted amongst the general public, bird keepers and hobbyists, government agencies and conservation groups. In response to this, Wildlife Reserves Singapore, TRAFFIC, and Cikananga Wildlife Center, in collaboration with other regional and international institutions joined forces to address this Songbird Crisis. Twentyeight priority bird species and four major themes for conservation action were identified at the Summit. This presentation will report on the major aims and outcomes of Southeast Asia’s first Songbird Crisis Summit held in September 2015 at Jurong Bird Park.

Monitoring wildlife seizure data on the Nepal-Tibet Border

Paudel, Kumar

Illegal wildlife trade is a growing challenge to biodiversity conserve. In South Asia, Nepal acts as both a source-country and as a transitional hub for wildlife parts. Well-established channels through Nepal to Tibet deliver wildlife parts to China, the Middle East and South East Asian markets. However, there has been relatively little effort to systematically study patterns or trends in wildlife trade through Nepal. This talk explores the shifting patterns of the illegal wildlife trade based on six years (2009-2014) of wildlife seizure data compiled from national newspapers, Nepal's Police, District Forest Office, Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation, and from records of conservation organizations. These suggest a possible shift in trade from species widely-recognized as threatened by trade (e.g., Tiger, Asian Elephant, and One Horned Rhinoceros) to other species, with dramatic increases in seizures of Pangolin, Red panda, Common Leopard, Musk deer, Python and Eurasian Eagle owl. This trend, however, could also represent changing enforcement strategies, and greater awareness of trade in other species. Highly armed national parks and wildlife reserves are being successful to control the poaching inside the protected areas and Nepal is celebrating a "zero poaching" year for Tiger Elephant and Rhino inside its protected areas. However, poaching and trade of other species from outside of protected areas, and the transnational trade of taxa from other countries remains a problem. Seizure records have limitations for researchers, but given the severe lack of information on illegal trade and challenges of collecting primary data, they are also a valuable, under-utilized dataset. There is a clear benefit to improving the collection of seizure records, including by expanding them so baseline data is collected when seizures are made, such as on suspected origin and destination of wildlife and on the participants involved in trade. Controlling the illegal wildlife harvest and trade, particularly outside the protected areas, is a mounting challenging. There is a need not only for systematic evaluation to improve enforcement, as well as to better explore non-enforcement to save world’s endangered species.

Sentence Discrepancy among Wildlife Traffickers in Indonesia

Hermawati, Irma

The Wildlife Conservation Society Indonesia program has been evaluating how consistent the law has been enforced upon owners of live protected wildlife, owners of wildlife taxidermies, and the illegal trade for protected wildlife body parts between June 2012 to December 2015. The objective is to identify the gaps in law enforcement efforts, and number of sample was 2015 and was taken from a database of cases handled by the WCU. Out of 13 cases of live or dead illegal wildlife keeping or ownership, zero case went to court. Out of 92 cases of live, dead or protected wildlife parts traded; 68 suspects were sentenced, 9 suspects are still ongoing process, 3 suspects escaped, 1 suspect was deported, 2 suspects are released 65 due to old and sick, 5 suspects had letters written in 1991 on looking after taxidermies, 2 military official suspects were given a warning note, 1 small-scale fisherman was warned, and 1 suspect passed away. Out of 13 cases on live wildlife or taxidermy ownership, the owners were given the letter for voluntary handover. Not one case of wildlife keeping or ownership was sentenced in court, while 80% of cases for live animal trade, taxidermies of protected wildlife parts are either completed or still ongoing court process. The significant gaps in how the law is enforced to perpetrators of tiger body parts compared to keeping or ownership of live animal parts, taxidermies or protected wildlife body parts, has created an inconsistency of law, that consequently has no deterrent effect for previous or existing owners of live, taxidermies or protected animal body parts.

Chinese demand for ivory fuels domestic ivory markets in Cambodia

Trang, Nguyen

This presentation reports on the illegal ivory trade in the three largest cities of Cambodia: Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihannoukville. Market surveys were conducted in June 2015 and January 2016 to assess the number of ivory items for sale, the price of items, and the demographic of the customer base in three major Cambodian cities. I visited every main markets and city streets were systematically surveyed by motorbike to identify and visit every vendor that appeared to potentially sell ivory. In 2015, 10 retail outlets in Phnom Penh and 5 retail outlets in Siem Reap were identified as selling real ivory, offering a total of 524 and 235 carved ivory items respectively. Survey in January 2016 showed that the number of shops offering ivory in Phnom Penh increased to 16 (670 carved items) and 8 shops (290 carved items) in Siem Reap. No retail outlets in Sihanoukville were found selling ivory during both surveys. Based on asking prices of ivory items on display in these cities, the retail value estimated to be US$128,275 of ivory for sale in July 2015, and US$432,374 available in January 2016. Results also show that the ivory markets in Cambodia are mainly fuelled by foreigner’s demand, particularly the Chinese. Cambodian government need to work with Chinese government and Chinese authorities to tackle the illegal trade of ivory between these two countries.

Large-scale hunting and sale of pangolins across Sub-Saharan Africa: a growing illegal trade with Asia?

Ingram, Daniel J.; Coad, Lauren; Scharlemann, Jӧrn P.W.

The exploitation and trade in wildlife threatens many species. The plight of pangolins (Manidae) in Asia, largely caused by their use in traditional medicine and in luxury items, is well documented. With the decline in Asian pangolins (Manis sp.), the four African pangolin species (Phataginus sp. and Smutsia sp.) may be targeted as substitutes. However, little is currently known about the extraction of pangolins from Africa. We collated available quantitative data from published studies investigating the vertebrates hunted or sold at markets across Africa. Using linear mixed effects models, we show that the proportion of pangolins of all vertebrates hunted has increased between 1972 and 2014 across Africa, whereas no significant change was observed at African markets. Trends in harvesting differ among species, with the greatest increase shown for the white-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis). Using data on prices, we show that the relative price of pangolins has not changed across the main bushmeat markets, and discuss how this may be because pangolins are sold through a different commodity chain. We present evidence from collated media reports of pangolin seizures across Africa and Asia between 2000 and 2016, indicating that there is an international trade in African pangolin scales and parts to Asia. For the first time, quantitative data are brought together and the temporal and spatial patterns in the hunting, sale and prices of African pangolins analysed to help guide conservation decisions and reduce exploitation and trade of this family of threatened vertebrates.

Measuring and monitoring the impact of the bird trade in Southeast Asia on wild bird populations

Wilcove, David; Harris, Bert; Hua, Fangyuan1

The wildlife trade poses an enormous yet poorly studied threat to thousands of vertebrate species around the world. Southeast Asia is recognized as a global “hotspot” for the wildlife trade. In Indonesia alone, over 300 species of wild birds are regularly sold in markets, but, with few exceptions, little is known about the impact this trade having on wild populations. Through field surveys in Sumatra, we show that the wild bird trade is, in fact, significantly depressing bird populations, even in seemingly remote areas. We also estimate that trappers can readily access well over half of Sumatra's remaining forests. We further find that monitoring trends in market prices and sales volumes provides an inexpensive yet reasonably accurate way to identify over-exploited species so as to better target scarce resources for conservation. We believe this approach can be extended to other parts of Southeast Asia and to other taxa.

Ending the tiger trade: a zero demand approach to support efforts towards zero poaching.

Banks, Deborah; Davies, Charlotte; Lee, Vicky1; Suresh, Shruti

Tiger (Panthera tigris) populations are stabilising and in some locations recovering, in range states that have strong legislative frameworks based on protection and prohibition of domestic as well as international trade in the parts and derivatives of both wild and captive tigers. Conversely, wild tiger populations are functionally extinct or perilously close to extinction in range states where domestic trade in the parts and derivatives of captive bred tigers is licensed, where there is a thriving consumer market, and in range states where the keeping and breeding of tigers is poorly regulated. The market-based approach and utilisation of parts and derivatives of captive bred tigers has failed to support wild tiger conservation in range states that practice this approach, and continues to undermine wild tiger conservation efforts in range states that have prioritised prohibition and enforcement. EIA will present findings of field research in China, during which traders have revealed how they abuse the regulatory system that allows domestic trade in the skins of captive bred tigers to launder illegally acquired specimens. EIA field research also illustrates how individuals engaged in trafficking of Asian big cat parts and products are linked to licensed taxidermists, merging the worlds of illegal and legal trade. Consumer preferences have been documented in published papers, seizure and court case records and through EIA encounters with traders. Analysis indicates that legal and illegal trade in captive bred tiger parts and derivatives perpetuates the desirability of these commodities, undermines enforcement and drives poaching of wild tigers, and of other Asian big cats as a substitute for tiger. EIA advocates for a clear and singular message to consumers through a strong legal framework, and for the phase out of tiger “farms”. We believe this will have a greater impact on reducing demand in China and neighbouring countries than the current stimulation of demand caused by legal and illegal trade in captive bred tiger parts and derivatives